Monday, October 3, 2022

I wondered.

 I saw a woman at a store. She was shopping, just like I was, but she was happily singing along with the classic rock music coming across the PA system. She would stop to greet people from time to time in a cheerful voice, carry on a conversation, and then return to her singing.  

She seemed perfectly happy and comfortable in her own skin. 

I found myself a bit wistful as I watched her, wondering what it would be like to be that unselfconscious. 


24 comments:

  1. I've encountered women like that (at the bus stop, in line at the bakery, the big woman who lives up the hall from me). Sometimes I find it a little annoying, but far be it for me to rain on their parade. :^)

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    1. I don't mind happy people, but it just is a marvel to me that people can just be so totally unworried about what others might think. I envy it a little sometimes.

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    2. I know just what you mean--I envy people who are 100% certain they're going to Heaven, or seeing their loved ones again when they die. Why can't I believe that too?

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    3. I think that theology falls under a completely different heading than simply being so plainly happy that you quietly sing in public places or do a little two step as you walk back to your shopping cart.

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  2. Yes, too many people very self conscious and miss out on a lot of fun.

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  3. I'm remembering the way under ten year olds dance with a little envy.

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    Replies
    1. Exactly! I should have known that you'd get it. So the next question is 'where does that go do you think?

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  4. I feel the same when people get up to dance. I am quite a good air guitarist after my sixth pint.😊

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    1. A friend recently signed up for an exercise class after being awfully sick. He's a quiet sort and rarely comes out of the woods, but he is trying to get himself back to his old self. He explained it to me like this: If I am concentrating on my feet doing what they are supposed to do, when I look at my hands, they're not doing what they are supposed to be doing. If I watch my hands to make sure they are doing what they are supposed to be doing, my feet take a break.

      Yep. Me too.

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  5. Nicely relaxed..I am envious too

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  6. That's why we love small children so much, they are still themselves. And yes, I envy people like that too.

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    1. I never connected the two things, but yes, you and Andrew are exactly right.

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  7. The older I get, the more I am like your shopping lady. I guess it is because I have a family to go home to that "gets" me and the less repercussions that can take place is someone I know sees me.

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  8. Did she have an open bottle of wine in her cart? :D

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    1. She did not. And to be clear, she was not belting out anything at the top of her lungs...just happily singing.

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  9. I find that the older I get the less I care about what other people think of me. I can go out in my comfortable sweatpants and sweatshirts. I don't need to be fashionable or "popular". I was so worried about that in high school and am much calmer about that now! :)

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    1. This year, I began forcing myself to do things outside my comfort zone. Once I got over the initial mental resistance to doing it, I discovered that it was 'much ado over nothing'. I think that I need to push myself out of my comfort zone more often.

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  10. My favourite cashier at the grocery store used to sing. She probably still does wherever she is. She’s the only cashier that I have ever really gotten chatty with.

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  11. I think the key to it is, as you say in a reply comment, is to quietly sing. I was in the checkout line at Walmart a few days ago when a man, in a loud, booming voice, decided to serenade the store with a hymn. I found it very annoying that he just hijacked a captive audience because he is apparently in great need of attention. It was very hard to not express an opinion to this spectacle. I have seenhthis a couple of times. I don’t get it.

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  12. Eeek. That would annoy me too. There is a big difference between being happy and attention seeking. I don't recollect such a thing ever happening to me, but I would have left the line.

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